Fwd: more on phonology & ABSL

Wed Feb 20 08:00:14 UTC 2008

Here are some more responses from Irit Meir and Wendy Sandler  
regarding the issue of phonological structure in Al-Sayyid Bedouin  
Sign Language. Note that in response to my suggestion that this  
information be made available in a website, Wendy said that the team  
does have a website http://sandlersignlab.haifa.ac.il/html/html_eng/al_sayyid.html 
, but they have not yet added all the information in the  
correspondence below, but plan to do so soon.

Adam
--
Adam C Schembri, PhD
Project Director, British Sign Language Corpus Project
Deafness, Cognition and Language (DCAL) Research Centre
University College London
49 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0PD
United Kingdom
http://www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk/team/adam_schembri.html
www.bslcorpusproject.org

On suggestions of similarity between ABSL and Providence Island SL,  
Irit wrote:

>>> Hi Adam,
>>> Since I read Washabaugh's book on Providence Island SL quite  
>>> recently, the differences between the two language situations  
>>> (ABSL and PISL) is still fresh in my mind. First, there is a  
>>> difference in numbers: in PI there were about 20 deaf people, who  
>>> lived in different villages which didn't have daily contact with  
>>> eachother. So in any one village there were 5 deaf people max, I  
>>> think, and they met with other deaf people only on rare occasions.  
>>> In ABSL there are more than 100 signers in a very small village  
>>> (3,500 people). So the precentage is much much higher, and there  
>>> is a lot of regular contact between deaf people in the village, as  
>>> Wendy pointed out. It's true that the (extended) family is still  
>>> the most important socio-linguistic unit, and there are  
>>> differences between families. But it's not the case that contact  
>>> between members of different families are rare.
>>>
>>> Secondly, Washabaugh gives the impression that PISL is very much  
>>> context dependent, and that stretches of discourse are almost  
>>> incomphensible out of context. ABSL seems to be different: people  
>>> talk about many different subjects, and seem to convey and  
>>> understand ideas very effortlessly, like members of any other  
>>> linguistic community. We also have had the experience of working  
>>> on video-taped stretches of signing, and signers (from other  
>>> families for that matter) could understand, translate  and gloss  
>>> it for us. If the system was context dependent, we wouldn't expect  
>>> them to be able to do it. It is true that some of the signing of  
>>> older signers is more context-dependent, and our consultants  
>>> weren't quite sure how to translate some parts of their narrative.  
>>> But with the younger signers we didn't find that. So at least the  
>>> ABSL of younger people (in their 30s more or less) seems to be not  
>>> context-dependent.
>>>
>>> Washabaugh also mentions that PISL signers do not use their  
>>> signing in a metalinguistic way, to talk about the language  
>>> itself. Our ABSL consultants do use their language to talk about  
>>> the language (to compare different signs of different people, for  
>>> example), they do have namesigns for themselves and for places.  
>>> They had no problem whatsoever performing the linguistic tasks we  
>>> asked them to (e.g. to describe a clip to an addressee, and then  
>>> the addressee has to choose the picture that matches the  
>>> description, and even a more elaborate task that elicits complex  
>>> sentences). Interestingly, some of the old ISL signers who were  
>>> asked to perform these tasks had a harder time than the Bedouins.  
>>> And, ABSL signers who know ISL as well can translate from one  
>>> language to the other, so they really have a clear notion of their  
>>> language as opposed to the "Jewish" SL (and they can talk about  
>>> the differences between the two languages).
>>>
>>> You suggest that "I'm still wondering if it's in fact a collection  
>>> of emerging ABSL
>>> varieties/family-based lects rather than simply one variety: ABSL".
>>> Well, I think we can say that there are a few varieities, at least  
>>> in terms of some vocabulary items. But since we find so much  
>>> variation in other SLs as well, I am not sure that we can talk  
>>> about "simply one variety" of any language. So ABSL is not  
>>> different from other SLs (or at least some other SLs) in that  
>>> respect.
>>>
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Irit
>>>
>>>

In response to my comments about phonological/phonetic variation in  
ABSL compared to older signed languages and on issues of language use  
in the community (is the ABSL community really one 'speech community',  
as sociolinguists might say, or a collection of home sign systems or  
separate language varieties?):

>>>>
>>>> Interesting to hear about the variation in Auslan.  We are now  
>>>> doing
>>>> some comparisons with other sign languages.
>>>> The sociology of communication in the village is one of a language
>>>> community.  We don't have isolated signers in hearing families, but
>>>> a village with many deaf people, often many within a nuclear  
>>>> family,
>>>> plus co-siblings, etc., and many hearing people who also know sign
>>>> language.  There are community gatherings such as weddings where
>>>> hands fly everywhere you look; deaf (and hearing) kids from
>>>> different families play together, go to school together.  Deaf  
>>>> women
>>>> from different families socialize together.  Deaf men as well.  It
>>>> is a language community situation, not a home sign situation.  As
>>>> far as the language goes, it doesn't look like a home sign.  People
>>>> have elaborate conversations in real time.  There is regular word
>>>> order, not only of subject object and verb but of head and  
>>>> modifier,
>>>> across the village.  The language has its own kind of classifier
>>>> compound or affix construction (that we haven't written about yet),
>>>> not like the classifier constructions seen in other sign languages.
>>>
>>>> Carol's had experience with home signers, and I've documented one
>>>> myself.  This is not home sign.  It's a new language in a small
>>>> community.
>>>>
>>>> We are very interested in the variation we get, and in the idea  
>>>> that
>>>> 'in the wild', the family unit is important for language
>>>> development.  ....this is the first time I've been
>>>> interested in socio-linguistics!  There is a story there that we  
>>>> are
>>>> beginning to investigate.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for your interest and the exchange of ideas.
>>>> Best,
>>>> Wendy
>>>
>>>
>
>
> Professor Wendy Sandler
> Director, Sign Language Research Lab
> Rabin Building
> University of Haifa
> 31905 Haifa
> Israel
> tel:  +972-4-824-9395
> fax: +972-4-824-9958
>
> http://sandlersignlab.haifa.ac.il/
>
> Department of English Language
>          and Literature
> University of Haifa
> 31905 Haifa
> Israel
>
>
>
>

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